ARTICLES ABOUT JESUS BY DATE - PAGE 4

“ Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus. ” - John 12:21b My only previous experience with contact lenses was in eleventh grade when a classmate tried on my girlfriend's (now my wife of thirty-seven years) hard contact lens. He immediately shut his eye, closed his fist, and held it tightly to his eyebrow. After what seemed an eternity, probably only a couple minutes, a single tear trickled down his cheek. I do not know how he ever got the lens out, but I learned an important lesson that day. I never, ever wanted to try wearing contact lenses.

"If ye have the faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. " We all know a mustard seed is very, very small. What is Jesus saying here? If we have just a very little faith we can do great things? I have thought a lot about this passage of Scripture. I don't pretend to understand it fully. I do know, however, I have not moved any mountains lately. Jesus was speaking in poetic language when he said this.

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. " This passage of Scripture from Matthew gave me some trouble. Why should the meek inherit the earth? These are not the shakers and the doers of the world. As I read this passage again I thought of the meekest, most spiritless person I knew. Why would he inherit the earth? It wasn't that I doubted the Scripture. It was just that I didn't understand it. Why would God leave the earth in the hands of people like that? And, if God did, what would this person do with it?

It's something that comes to us all from time to time. We don't like it. We don't completely understand it. It makes us feel guilty when we have done nothing wrong. I'm talking about fear and doubt. A friend was ready to resign his position in the church. He felt he wasn't worthy because once in a while an element of doubt about God crept into his mind. "I fear that doubt," he said. We all know fear. We all know doubt. Sometimes we fear the future. What's this world coming to? We fear for our children.

The Pharisees were inside the church. But Jesus and his followers did not go in. They sat down outside the church with the people who were there. The Pharisees were the puritan members of society. They didn't like what Jesus was doing. They went to some of Jesus' followers and asked why Jesus would spend time with these people, the sinners? The people who were traveling with Jesus didn't have the answer. They went to Jesus and repeated the question. Jesus told them there was little use talking with the Pharisees, explaining the deeper message of spiritual living to them.

Drawing a blueprint is not building a building. Dreaming about something is not making it real. Wishing for something does not make it happen. This is what Jesus was trying to get across to his followers as they made their way to Jerusalem together for the last time. Jesus knew that in making this journey he was walking right into the lion's den. Jerusalem was the stronghold of the Romans. This was the heart of their empire. It represented the focal point of everything Jesus had spoken and acted against.

Sometimes it takes a failure or disaster before we really find ourselves. It's not uncommon to find a person who, when backed against a wall with failure, suddenly finds himself and accomplishes things he never thought possible. It's often true that we never really know what we have in us until we are faced with trouble. Until we are tested we really never find the greatness we have. Allow me to present an ultimatum that is true. I do it in the hope that someone will take it seriously and it, in turn, will bring out strength in that person.

A clergyman was urging a young fellow to do some lay speaking. "No way," replied the young fellow. "I'm no Billy Graham or Joel Osteen. I'm not worthy to try to speak for God. " "No," the pastor replied. "Who is? You are not a famous pastor you are Jim Maxwell and there is just one of you. " It's easy to get a wrong idea about God's work. Shortly after I began to write this column a good friend commented, "How does it feel to be wearing two collars?" He meant I was an editor for a secular newspaper and at the same time writing a column regarding religion.

One of the most fascinating characters in the Bible is the man we know as Peter. He was the impulsive one - the one we can always count on to do the unexpected. Once he almost conquered the technique of walking on the water. That is, he almost mastered it. I find that incident one of the most amusing in the Bible. Jesus had been doing some healing and a great crowd gathered. He fed them with the five loaves of bread and a couple fish. Then he told his disciples to get into he boat and go to the other side of the lake.